Transcript

>> For white South African farmers like Herman Pretorius, America's cheap chicken exports are more of a threat than domestic land reform.>>

FOREIGN]

> It's not a new fight, for years America and South Africa have squabbled over poultry.

00:00:28

The US choosing to keep South African chickens out on health and sanitation grounds. And South Africa accusing American farmers of dumping chicken at below cost prices. But President Trump's America First policy has fired up South African poultry farmers. They're calling for new tariffs on imported US chickens, including the 65,000 tons of poultry currently excluded from levies.

00:00:51

Local production in South Africa only accounts for a quarter of consumption, the rest is all imported. Pretorius, who runs 14 industrial chicken houses producing over half a million birds every few weeks, is worried about his future. He blames cheap imported chicken for driving down prices. A more pressing concern for him, even than land reform.

00:01:11

South Africa's in the midst of a debate about the policy of allowing mainly white owned land to be expropriated without compensation. The issue was taken up by Trump, who tweeted his concern about what he termed the large scale killing of farmers. That earned a quick rebuke from South Africa's government, which called it divisive.